Ukiyo: The Baker's Tale
by goshinote
Summary: Bakery-owner Inuyasha Takahashi lives a simple life as a successful baker until he meets an unexpected woman in an unexpected way. Her new presence shakes up everything he thought he knew, and now it looks like Inuyasha is about to discover that nothing is as simple as he once thought.


Hello, beautiful darlings!

I'm super extra excited about this story. It's been a bit of a secret side story I've been working on for about a year, but it got put on hold for a while. I had the entire plot completely written out on a piece paper, but then I lost the paper (way to go, Jane, amiright?). Anyway, the story wound up being better than the story I originally had, so I got lucky!

Anyway, I've been waiting forever to post this because I wanted it to be as good as it could be before I started putting up chapters. It's nowhere near done, but I think it's on a roll at this point and I'm so excited for you all to read.

It is a rather short first chapter, but I just needed to go ahead and get the ball rolling. Bear with me! Future chapters will be much longer.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or its characters. All rights to Rumiko Takahashi.

Chapter 1: The Baker

A quick sniff of the air told Inuyasha that his rolls were done. Their fresh aroma wafted throughout the kitchen and pleasantly assaulted his delicate hanyo senses.

 _Ding!_

Just as Inuyasha had expected, the oven went off. He rose from the chair in which he'd been sitting behind the front counter and headed back to get his items out of the oven.

Inuyasha let the scent wash over him as he pulled out the rolls he'd been working on that afternoon. They were last on his list of goods that he needed to back that day, and since he had some extra time, he made a few extra for himself and Miroku, his co-owner and best friend.

"Did I hear the oven go off?" Miroku asked, coming up behind Inuyasha as he set the pan down. Inuyasha took off the oven mitts and rolled his eyes.

"This is a bakery, Miroku," he replied dryly. "The oven goes off about a thousand times a day." Miroku laughed good-naturedly.

"And you give me that same frown about _ten_ -thousand times a day," he teased. That brought a smirk to Inuyasha's face.

"I don't always frown," Inuyasha countered. "Sometimes I punch you." Miroku grinned and shook his head.

The sound of the bell on the front door rang, alerting the co-owners of the small bakery that a customer had just entered. With one last teasing glance, Miroku left the kitchen area and headed out to the store area to greet the customer.

Once he was alone, Inuyasha sighed. _I guess I should stop frowning so much,_ he thought to himself. _It's no wonder the customers always go to Miroku with any questions…even though I'm the one actually baking everything._

Inuyasha shook his head and peered down at the rolls he'd just baked. A small surge of pride coursed through him. _I can't believe how long it's been since I've needed to look at that old recipe book,_ he realized silently. _It feels like just yesterday I could barely tell the different types of flour apart._

"Inuyasha?" Miroku called from the store. The baker walked out of the kitchen to see Miroku standing beside a display of bread.

"We're missing two pieces of _anpan_ again."

That provoked a string of curses from Inuyasha's mouth, resulting in a dirty look being tossed his way by the nearest customer. After a quick apologetic bow of his head in the middle-aged woman's direction, he peered down at the display Miroku was examining.

"Why do those keep going missing?" Inuyasha grumbled. "Are you eating them, baka?" Miroku looked taken aback.

"You wound me, Inuyasha," he replied. "I do like your bread, dear friend, but _anpan_ is not one of your delicacies of which I am fond." Rolling his eyes at the statement, Inuyasha walked back over to the cash register.

"We should put in a security camera," Miroku suggested as he followed his golden-eyed friend to the counter. "Then maybe we could catch our weekly thief." Inuyasha frowned.

"Apparently we'll have to," he conceded. "I'm getting real tired of this crap. The same thing has been happening for the last month and none of us ever see the stupid criminal!" Miroku sighed and leaned on the counter.

"We have to give them credit for being clever, though," he commented. "They never seem to steal on the same day…just once a week." Inuyasha's ears twitched in annoyance.

"Keh! For _four_ weeks now," he reminded Miroku ruefully. "That's four weeks too many. I don't know why I even bother keeping this place open." Miroku chuckled at Inuyasha knowingly.

The baker had been saying that for some time now, but they both knew that the bakery meant too much to both of them to close it down.

And also…Inuyasha actually liked baking.

Miroku stood up and began to head toward the back.

"I'll look into getting a camera," he said. "You know me…I always find the best prices." That brought a half-grin to Inuyasha's face.

Miroku slipped through the kitchen door to begin his search for a security camera on their personal computer. Shortly after he'd left the room, a familiar customer approached Inuyasha at the cash register.

"Did you find everything you needed?" Inuyasha asked Kaede, one of his regulars. She'd been coming to the bakery several times a week since Inuyasha was a child, long before Inuyasha and Miroku had become the owners of the place, so they always tried to be especially helpful to her.

"Indeed," she replied as she set her usual _shokupan_ and _melonpan_ in front of Inuyasha. "I heard ye speaking with Miroku. Ye two have a thief?" The baker nodded as he entered the prices into the cash register.

"Yeah, it's been weird lately," Inuyasha replied. "Whoever it is keeps stealing _anpan_. It's really getting on our nerves." Kaede smiled.

"That could be attributed to your higher than usual prices," she pointed out. Inuyasha smirked.

"Blame Miroku," he replied. "That's all him." Kaede laughed.

"But of course," she agreed. "In all truthfulness, I do not find these robberies to be 'weird' at all, Inuyasha. There is a magic in your bread with which other bakeries cannot compete." An embarrassed blush came to Inuyasha's cheeks as he added up all the prices.

"If you say so," he replied awkwardly. "Here's your total." Kaede paid for her bread, and with a happy goodbye, she left.

"Now where did that frown go?" Miroku asked Inuyasha teasingly as he joined him back at the counter. "Why do you smile at Kaede but not at your best friend?" Inuyasha didn't bother looking at Miroku as he put the cash in the register.

"Kaede doesn't do anything that makes me want to punch her," he replied dryly.

Miroku had a laugh at that.

 _I might not smile a lot,_ Inuyasha thought to himself, _but at least I'm funny sometimes…_

O.o.O.o.O

After discovering the latest robbery, Inuyasha's mood soured greatly. He spent the better hours of the evening glaring at the front door or glaring at anything in general. Miroku finally had to kick him to the back of the bakery and into the kitchen to take out his glaring on some bread, only allowing him to come back out during closing.

Closing the bakery was sure to calm him down.

Despite the fact that Inuyasha enjoyed baking and, although he'd never admit it, seeing how much people loved his baked goods, he also enjoyed closing up the bakery. He got a sense of completion at the end of each day. He had a nightly routine, and this night was no different despite the bump in the road he'd had.

Like always, Inuyasha walked around the bakery and examined all of the items. He went through and gathered up the different breads that were a little too old to be sold as fresh, and instead put them on the discount shelf. Their bread was very popular and sold very quickly, so their discount shelf was always rather small.

After that, Inuyasha would take out the breads in the display window and put them on the shelves. He always baked fresh bread early in the morning so that their window display would be known for their fresh goods and look more unique.

The last part of closing was Inuyasha's favorite.

He went outside to get the mail, which came roughly ten minutes before they closed, and then he looked up at the painting on the window.

Inuyasha remembered when this painting was done. It was simply the name of the bakery, _Ukiyo_ , in old-fashioned calligraphy letters. He and Miroku had kept up with it over the years in an effort to keep it as long-lasting as possible. So far, it had withstood the test of time.

That night, after they had closed up shop, Miroku reported his findings as they headed up to the apartment in which they lived above the bakery.

"So I found a good deal on a security camera," Miroku informed Inuyasha as he grabbed two sodas from the fridge. "I went ahead and placed the order so I'm hoping it'll be here in a few days." Inuyasha groaned as he plopped down on the couch in their small living room. _Can't wait to see how much that cost us…_

"Should be just in time for the weekly thief to strike again," he muttered. "I can't wait to catch the sucker. I'll have to introduce them to my claws." Miroku chuckled as he passed a can of soda to Inuyasha.

"Or we could just tell them to stop or we'll call the police?" he suggested, amusement leaking into his voice. "Violence doesn't tend to solve anything." Inuyasha huffed as he opened his soda.

"Well, it just might," he replied as he turned on the TV. "No one steals my freakin' bread and gets away with it." Miroku laughed and Inuyasha allowed the smirk he'd been suppressing to dawn on his face.

At least their jobs weren't boring.

O.o.O.o.O

 _"_ _You mustn't run around with those children!"_

 _The typical scolding made tears spring into the young girl's eyes._

 _"_ _I'm sorry," she said softly. The subject of her angst, her sensei, didn't take pity on the child's tears._

 _"_ _Remember your title, you stupid girl!" her sensei reminded harshly. "Your apologies are of no value. Just do as you have been told! There will be no associating with_ those _kinds of people during your pivotal training times!" The young girl bowed at the sensei and walked away from her friends to head inside her house. She heard him yelling at the children from behind her, but she was too scared to go back and stick up for them._

 _"_ _I hope this isn't how my life will always be," the girl said to herself. "I wish I could have any life but this one…"_

At the memory, the now grown-up girl scoffed. "Sensei-sama was right," she muttered into the darkness of her tiny, poorly-heated, sparsely-furnished apartment. "Turns out I really was a 'stupid girl.'"

To be continued…

Like I said, rather short chapter just to kind of give you a little background before we start getting into things.

Let me know what you think so far!

Much love. :)


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